1. Field of the Invention
Embodiments of the present invention relate generally to display technologies and more specifically to depth map generation methods and video conversion methods and systems.
2. Description of the Related Art
Unless otherwise indicated herein, the approaches described in this section are not prior art to the claims in this application and are not admitted to be prior art by inclusion in this section.
A three-dimensional (3D) image or 3D video may provide the illusion of depth perception. Conventional 3D technologies may be based on stereoscopic photography, which may require a special camera to capture images from two lenses. To play-back the 3D stereoscopic image or video, special hardware and/or eye glasses may be required to provide the illusion of depth for the viewers by simultaneously displaying two images that mimic the perspectives of human eyes. Although 3D displays offer spectacular visual experience and benefit to many applications, such as broadcasting, movie, gaming, and photography, there currently lacks an effective approach to generate 3D content.
In addition, for two-dimensional (2D) images or 2D video that have been captured using conventional 2D hardware, the conventional 3D display hardware and/or 3D eye glasses may lack the ability to display 3D effects from these 2D content. Thus, before showing 3D effects using 3D display hardware, the 2D images may need to be converted into 3D images, and the 2D video may also need to be converted into 3D video. However, conventional techniques for converting 2D images/video to 3D images/video often rely on object-based segmentation and motion compensation techniques, which require significant computing resources to carry out.